“Kaatiyabaaz” is a compelling documentary film that highlights the power crisis in Kanpur, a city of three million people in north India.

It has all the elements of a steamy Hindi movie: 45-degree Celsius heat, power outages that last 12-15 hours, and illegal connections that come up every night and disappear in the morning. The everyday characters are gripping too. There’s a Robin-Hood-like street electrician who “provides power” by hooking to transmission lines. An upright bureaucrat (a woman, imagine that!) trying to get people to pay their bills and prevent theft. A city full of tired, angry citizens fed up with poor service provided. The film underlines how people will do whatever it takes to get some juice in their wires so that they can get lights, fans, water…the basic necessities of 20th century life.

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Providing electricity and clean household fuels to the 1.2 billion who are without them, while also supporting the shift to a sustainable energy path are the key elements of the World Bank's approach to energy. This blog is devoted to an exchange of ideas on how to achieve the goals of universal access, doubling renewable energy, and doubling the improvement in energy efficiency.